Not all landscape design considers ecological well-being. In fact, most conventional landscape design does not consider it very much at all.
I like to follow these principles as a guiding framework that will lead us to ecosystem well-being:
Valuing and Optimizing Resource Use
Our natural resources include healthy soil, clean water, clean air, and the natural products that arise from healthy relationships with ecology.
In our society of excess materialism and pollution, we sometimes react in the opposite direction, where we feel like it’s wrong to use any kind of resources. But in a balanced ecology, there is always resource use and resource flows. An ecosystem emerges from interdependent relationships.
So we want to use water, we want to use soil, we want to use air, we want to consume, but we want to do so wisely, with awareness as to how these resources work (how they can be replenished and preserved for future generations).
We want to learn about how these processes work in nature, and understand the patterns and situations which allow these resources to become polluted or wasted. We want to be able to observe and identify situations when these resources are not being understood, valued, and used wisely.
So it’s not about using zero resources, it’s about optimizing their availability, cleanliness, and health.
Biodiversity
The World Wildlife Foundation finds an average biodiversity loss of 69% since the 1970s.
Biodiversity is important to overall ecosystem health and resiliency. More diverse organisms may do some of the same things, but that redundancy provides the ability to recover from and tolerate times of climate stress.
Biodiversity is also a key principle is pest and disease suppression. The more good actors there are, the more that bad actors can be outcompeted and actively suppressed. They can even be pressured to change their pathogenic behavior to beneficial behavior.
Greater aboveground biodiversity supports greater belowground biodiversity, which supports greater soil health all around (including water conservation, carbon sequestration, nutrient fertility).
Pollinator and Wildlife Habitat
Creating more native habitat for native pollinators, birds, lizards, etc., supports greater pest suppression and ecosystem health. Native pollinators also help to pollinate food crops, and support increased productivity and yield in regenerative vegetable farming systems.
These habitats also contribute to greater biodiversity overall.
Climate Change Mitigation
With rising global temperatures and runaway GHG emissions, my goal is to sequester more carbon in the soil through biodiversity and organic matter amendments, planting trees for shade and habitat, which will reduce microclimate temperatures and support air filtration.
My approach to ecological design integrates all of these considerations, weaving this ecological abundance into a beautiful, inviting, nourishing space that people enjoy gathering in.
Come learn more about how to DIY your own ecological garden oasis at my online webinar class tomorrow, Wednesday, June 12, from 6-7pm.
Another succinct and well written post explaining the fundamentals! Woohoo!🙌